HIGHLIGHTS-Bank of Canada's Poloz speaks in Ottawa

Reuters Staff

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TORONTO, April 12 (Reuters) - Below are some key quotes from an appearance on Wednesday by Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz in Ottawa following the central bank’s decision to hold benchmark interest rates unchanged:

POLOZ ON WHETHER A RATE CUT REMAINS AN OPTION:

“A rate cut, or further easing in policy, remains possible in the sense that there may be risks that are realized in the outlook, that pull us below the projection that we are offering up today.”

“When we talked about that a few months ago we had seen a series of disappointing data points that led us to believe that the risks were beginning to tilt towards to the downside and the uncertainties that we were dealing with were similarly negative.”

“And so it’s in that context that we discussed the possibility of easing. But in this context, given the data that we’ve seen in the last few months, I can quite clearly say no, a rate cut was not on the table at this time.” (Reporting by Fergal Smith, Alastair Sharp; Assembled by Dan Burns)